Gillain keeps quiet during the confrontation with the villagers at the bergermeister’s front gate. Her duty means she’s ready to speak up, but she’s also mentally weary, from the events of the day before and her restless night. And Ismark and the party make a good show of fielding the complaints and defusing the situation.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, then, the march with the party out of town lifts her spirits somewhat. It reminds her of days spent with her mentor, travelling between towns, not so long ago. She keeps to the back. To protect the rear, and so she has ‘eyes’ on everyone. And to make sure everyone keeps up, yet they travel at the party’s slowest pace.

When they reach the bridge, for a few seconds Gillain is on cloud nine, watching the fish, and the clear water, teeming with life. Then she thinks of something unrelated and out of the blue: ‘fresh running water’. Something from her training?… The phrase runs through her mind over and over again for some reason… …

Then, before she can process it properly, the party come across the toll-takers.

Gillain waits to see how this develops and to see where this is all going. She very obviously moves up to the front, clanking footfalls as she does so, in her heavy armour and shield. 

She stands to the side, almost like an umpire between the two groups, shield gleaming, her hand resting easy on her spear as if it’s only a hiking pole. She’s making sure the men know they have come prepared and are not easy pushovers…

Tio will stand near the back of the group with a hand on a dart. She doesn’t speak but she does keep an eye on the highwayman that is speaking.

Something gives Gillain pause for thought, and her eyes get their familiar milky-film over them, as she looks back across towards these highwaymen… ((using Divine Sense to check these guys out real quick…))

Quote from Grwobert >>

Something gives Gillain pause for thought, and her eyes get their familiar milky-film over them, as she looks back across towards these highwaymen… ((using Divine Sense to check these guys out real quick…))

Divine Sense (PHB, pg. 84)

The presence of strong evil registers on your senses like a noxious odor, and powerful good rings like heavenly music in your ears. As an action, you can open your awareness to detect such forces. Until the end of your next turn, you know the location of any celestial, fiend, or undead within 60 feet of you that is not behind total cover. You know the type (celestial, fiend, or undead) of any being whose presence you sense, but not its identity. Within the same radius, you also detect the presence of any place or object that has been consecrated or desecrated, as with the hallow spell.

 You can tell these men are not undead, fiends or celestials

Bob's spirits continued to lift until he was whistling along with the birds. "Finally, nature wins out against th' darkness of this gloomy place! I'm glad t' hear bees buzzing and fish splashing in the waters again." His whistling turned to a happy humming, a tune he'd usually reserve for tidying his dwelling in the hill.

It only stopped when they were halted by the toll guards, or so they would like the group to believe. He squints at the one who speaks, claiming the bridge was theirs and their group would have to pay. He uses his Insight to determine if it really was their bridge (even though he was quite sure it wasn't) but more importantly to gauge if they were actually bandits who intended on attacking them for their gold.

Insight check: 17

Bob; from your experience, you believe these men are nothing more than bandits.

"I know some of these men," Ismark says to the party. "A couple of them have a nefarious reputation."
"Stand Aside," Ismark tells him. "This is Barovian lands and you do not have a claim on it." 

The leader responds "Your outside of tha village now, so we make tha rules here." 

The bandits respond to the party's interactions by mumbling amongst themselves for a moment. They are confused. Gimble threatens an arcane response to their demands where Ban offers money, or they believe so. They exchange words in a strange language then the leader responds to the party. 

"Right!" he says with finality. "We'll take tha offer of the red-headed one. Toss over what ya offer an' we'll see if'n its enough." 

“Ok ok… ahah… Yes, we’ve all had some fun! Very good!..”, says Gillain stepping forward to the leader. “But I’ve got a better offer… … Join us!!”.

”Why not join us on the road?!… The more the merrier, eh? We’ll March and tell stories, and sing songs! What do you say?”.

”You look to be a strong fella”, she says clapping him on the shoulder in a friendly way, but with a little too much force just to let him know her strength…

”We’ll have some fun, and… if you escort us safe to where we’re going… I’ll give you each a gold piece for your troubles. How about that?”.

”What do you say?…”, she says with a smile.

Charisma check (if needed): 21 (+2 for persuasion)

Ban takes out the pouch she had procured from the undead archers and walks elegantly up next to Gillian. "There's nearly a tenday's worth of wages in this larger bag. However, take a closer look at the smaller bag." The eladrin tosses over the bag of unknown origin gold coins as well as the smaller bag containing the copper coins from Thay. 

"Within the smaller bag, as you'll see, the coins of Thay; marked with the symbol of a skull. I doubt you've heard of Thay, nor the slavery and undeath they willingly embrace, but I also highly doubt you've seen anything like me nor my companions here." A little hurt at being called out, she whips up her hood to reveal her elongated elf-like ears and silver hair.

"Perhaps we could consider this a reoccurring payment of sorts, should you be amicable to working together as my highly capable and dangerous companion offered." 

"We seen lots of strange folk walking around." says one of the men. "Been that way for days, even before tha earthquakes."

"Shut yer yap" the leader of the group yells out.

The leader picks up both bags, opens them then closes them quickly.
He looks to Gillain as she speaks then the left side of his mouth comes up while the other stays in position.
"What?" he says. "An become another servant to a Tin Lord till ya off us in some grand scheme? No thank you." 

He turns and starts to walk away. His men follow along.
He gets a few feet then turns back.
"That old wizard offered tha' same thing ta Duro an' his lads. An' we know what happened ta him now, don't we."

If not stopped these men will disappear into the woods nearby.

Tio watches as the Bandits slowly make their way “Was that the right Choice Ban? What if we run into them down the road or at some other point are we going to keep giving them coins?” 

With the tension deteriorating as the men leave, Ban sighs and begins to rummage through her pack. To Tio, she answers, "It's just money, and we didn't have to fight them. So, as things go, I'd say we can deal with them later. Plus," she thumbs the paladin's way, "As Gillian suggested, it was worth it to offer them to work for us, but for now, they're at least content." She finds success in her search, breaks off a third, and starts to nibble on a ration of a mixed-berry bread. 

Bob shakes his head and sighs. "Those were common rabble, I doubt they'll make it far in this place anyhow." 

Having averted combat with the bandits, the party continues.

Once you pass over the bridge the road cuts through the tip of a large wooded area. Ismark and Ireena seem uneasy as you pass through. Their reaction causes the party to scan the area for some unknown threat.
Towering trees, whose tops are lost in a heavy grey mist block all but the death-gray light that falls upon the road ahead. The tree trunks are unnaturally close to one another and no noise comes from these woods. No scurrying of animals or cries from birds can be heard, only silence like from some forgotten grave. 
Each of your footfalls can be heard along the road but the sound does not seem to penetrate the forest itself. A cold shiver seems to grasp you. It feels like the forest, though silent, exudes some unvoiced scream.
"Svalich Woods," Ireena says in a whisper as she looks around as if you are being followed.

The party travels for another 40 minutes and just as they break the wooded area, they come upon the following site.

An old wooden gallows creaks in a chilly wind that blows down from the high grounds to the west. A frayed length of rope dances from its beam. The well-worn road splits here, and a signpost opposite the gallows points off in three directions. 
Barovia Village, to the east, is the way the party has come from.
Ravenloft to the southwest.
Vallaki to the southwest. 
The northwest fork slants down and disappears into the woods, while the southwest fork clings to an upward slope.
Across from the gallows, a low wall, crumbling in places, partially encloses a small plot of graves shrouded in fog. 

DM:
The party has a choice of which path to take. If asked Ismark and Ireena, having no knowledge of the area, say they prefer to stay on the "defined" open roadway but will defer to what the party thinks is best. 

https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1QRpebtjX-mfQRe9iEH17MKI6JdA6G6remzaXubujx7M/edit

Map Legend:
A: where the party met the bandits.
B: the party's location thus far.

Gimble:

”I am suspicious of this sign—why would you have two separate signs pointing to the same path and not use one sign for multiple locations the same direction?” reasons Gimble.  “Can anyone inspect the sign to determine if it has been tampered with, and perhaps what directions the signs originally pointed?”

Gillain looks up at the signpost and says simply, “Hmmm… Okay then, let’s see… … Vallaki is our destination, is it not?… It’s that way then… …”. She points to the Southwest path, (the way that the sign indicates is towards Vallaki), and prepares to head that way, once the others have got their breath back, and are ready to go…

Tio carefully look at the sign for damage or tampering.

Perception: 13

After looking over each of the signs Tio does not believe there is anything out of the ordinary with them. 
There appears to be no "tampering" and there are no "extra" holes in the post holding the signs. 

“It doesn’t look like anyone’s tampered with the sign or even maintained it. Perhaps that direction leads to another fork in the road.”

Looking back at the post “Ravenloft, I am assuming that is the Castle which Strahd lives in. We should remind on guard at this point moving forward.” Tio says as she ready to move southwest. 

Gimble:

”Perhaps I am just overly suspicious, thanks for checking it out, Tio.  To the southwest it is, then,” says Gimble humbly, following the others.

Bob pats Gimble on the back as they head southwest. "Don' worry, lad. Sometimes if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and swims like a duck, well, it's just a duck!" He chuckles, though before long the sound fades into the mists, his joy swallowed up by the despair of the land they found themselves in.